Topeka Symphony Competitors

Celebrated as one of today’s most exciting and enduring orchestras, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is the second-oldest orchestra in the country. Widely considered one of the leading American orchestras, the Grammy® Award-winning SLSO maintains its commitment to artistic excellence, educational impact, and community collaborations—all in service to its mission of enriching lives through the power of music.

Founded in 1957, Kansas City Ballet is a 30-member professional ballet company under the direction of Artistic Director Devon Carney and Executive Director Jeffrey J. Bentley. Kansas City Ballet performs three mixed repertory seasons per year as well as the ever-popular Nutcracker. The company also reaches over 15,000 Kansas City students and adults each year through its community education programs and provides excellent dance training through Kansas City Ballet School.

In only its 42nd season, the Kansas City Symphony has already become one of America’s most vibrant major orchestras and has gained national and international recognition. With the 2024/25 season, the Symphony welcomes conductor and composer Matthias Pintscher as its new music director. Pintscher regularly conducts many of the world’s best orchestras and opera companies and ranks as one of the world’s foremost composers of orchestral music. Continually creating and advancing live music experiences in Helzberg Hall, located in the prestigious Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the Symphony serves Kansas City’s metro population of more than 2.2 million people as well as welcoming visitors from around the globe. The Symphony’s 80 full-time musicians are an international dynamic force, all of whom live, work, teach and play in Kansas City. In addition to concerts in Helzberg Hall, Symphony musicians perform throughout the region on our portable stage, the Mobile Music Box. The Symphony also serves as the orchestra for the Kansas City Ballet and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, adding to the rich cultural experiences that these organizations offer to the community. Every season, top international soloists perform with the Kansas City Symphony, including brilliant classical musicians, popular singer/songwriters, rock bands and other creative performers. The Symphony also accompanies a wide range of fan-favorite films, playing the soundtrack live as the movie is projected on a giant screen above the stage. The Symphony organization is comprised of musicians, conductors, orchestra managers, creative professionals, marketers, fundraisers, finance pros, data scientists, and more. We are a team united by our love of music, our pride in Kansas City, and our shared purpose to serve humanity through the performance of live music.